Lawyer told she had just one week to live after misdiagnosis Private blood test was life-saver for leukaemia patient told she had gum infection
WHEN Jenna Ostrowski went to see her Birmingham doctor, complaining of a sore mouth, she was told she had a gum infection.
The KPMG corporate lawyer could have a blood test if she wanted – but it would take more than two weeks before an appointment would be available.
But Miss Ostroswki had a gut feeling that there was more to it than that and using her company health insurance she got a test the following morning.
It was then she was told she could have as little as one week to live unless she received urgent treatment for leukaemia.
Miss Ostroswki had made countless trips to the doctor about symptoms that included bruising, lumps under her arms, sore gums and severe headaches.
She felt she should not wait for the blood test the locum GP offered at her local surgery.
Within hours a private consultant broke the news that she had acute myeloid leukaemia, and she was referred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for treatment.
“I had recently come back from a holiday in Bali, and I had a gum infection that wouldn’t go away,” explains the 34-year-old.
“I also had swollen glands and lumps under my arms, so I was concerned that I might have breast cancer.
“But when I went to the doctors, they said the gum infection had just spread to my lymph nodes.
“He made me feel like I was being a hypochondriac.”
But when Miss Ostroswki visited her dentist in July 2017 he was immediately concerned.
She was wearing a summer dress and he noticed bruising on her calves.
“He told me that he wanted me to get an appointment that day, and for the GP to call him afterwards,” she recalls.
“I’ve had that dentist for years, and I’d never had problems with my gums before. He was taking it so seriously that I knew I had to follow it up.”
However, when Miss Ostroswki went to see the GP he told her: “You’re giving me too many symptoms for a ten-minute consultation.”
He added that she would have to be referred to a “headache clinic” to discuss any symptoms, and refused to phone her dentist.
Miss Ostroswki persisted with the doctor for a blood test. He agreed to give her an application form but the receptionist told her there would be a two-and-a-half-week wait.
“A few months beforehand, my mum had a cancer scare, so that was on my mind,” explains Miss Ostroswki.
“Also my dentist had been so concerned I decided to see if I could get a test done privately through work.
“That weekend my boyfriend, Matt, was best man at a wedding and I wanted to put my mind at rest.
“So I went to the BMI Priory Hospital in Edgbaston and got a test.”
Using private healthcare cover from her job at KPMG in Birmingham, she got tested straight away.
By lunchtime that day, the Priory had sent Miss Ostroswki’s results to her GP.
He rang her to tell her that her “blood results were very irregular”, and that she was being referred to a consultant haematologist at the BMI Priory Hospital.
There she was told she had AML, an aggressive form of blood cancer where stem cells produce too many immature white blood cells.
She’d had it for around four months.
“They told me that if I hadn’t started chemotherapy within a few days, then I could have been dead within as little as a week,” reveals Miss Ostroswki.
“I felt like a zombie. The groom of the wedding drove Matt up to see me in hospital that night, on his last night three to of freedom! I wanted him to still go to the wedding the next day as he was best man.
“Despite already being in hospital having been diagnosed, two-and-ahalf weeks later I got a call from the GP surgery saying they could no longer do my blood test, as the nurse was sick. I most likely would have been dead by then.”
For the next seven months Miss Ostroswki endured four rounds of gruelling chemotherapy at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she had to stay on an isolation ward because her immune system was so negligible.
Now, almost 18 months on, Miss Ostroswki is in remission, although she must still undergo painful bone marrow biopsies every three months.
“There is no doubt that I would be dead if I had not had that blood test done privately,” she says.
“That is both terrifying and unfair in equal measure. It simply cannot be right that the only reason I am here now is thanks to the private healthcare I receive through my employer and that is why I am determined to help raise awareness.
“I owe the NHS my life, and I know it is under an ever-increasing amount of pressure. But I believe that GP training is not adequate. The doctor did not see the signs of leukaemia whereas my dentist did.
“I have seen this in the news a lot recently, tragically with Simon Thomas’s wife and also a young lady also from the Midlands with a scarily similar story to mine. I don’t think this is purely coincidence, so we must stop it happening.
“The problem is that blood cancer symptoms don’t manifest themselves as obviously as other cancers. In my case it was significant bruises, very bad headaches, night sweats, recurrent infections, specifically a gum infection and swollen glands.
“My GP simply didn’t spot the signs or share my concerns, but I knew something was wrong and so persisted that I needed a blood test, which I had to have privately due to the long wait on the NHS, and even that appointment was cancelled.
“It terrifies me to think how many other patients are out there in a similar position to me right now, and who don’t have the means to seek private healthcare.
“That is why I am so keen to share my story in the hope that the symptoms of blood cancer are more widely known.”
It simply cannot be right that the only reason I am here now is thanks to the private healthcare I receive through my employer. Jenna Ostrowski